Cited by 35Extracellular vesicles in diseaseCurcumin's Biomedical ApplicationsNanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery

Curcumin encapsulated in milk small extracellular vesicles as a nanotherapeutic alternative in experimental chronic liver disease

Open access
Albaladejo-García, Virginia, Morán, Laura, Santos-Coquillat, Ana, González, María I., Ye, Hui, Vázquez Ogando, Elena, Vaquero, Javier, Cubero, Francisco Javier +2 more·2024·Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Curcumin is a natural molecule widely tested in preclinical and clinical studies due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Nevertheless, its high hydrophobicity and low bioavailability limit in vivo applications. To overcome curcumin´s drawbacks, small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) have emerged as potential drug delivery systems due to their non-immunogenicity, nanometric size and amphiphilic composition. This work presents curcumin cargo into milk sEV structure and further in vitro and in vivo evaluation as a therapeutic nanoplatform. The encapsulation of curcumin into sEV was performed by two methodologies under physiological conditions: a passive incorporation and active cargo employing saponin. Loaded sEVs (sEVCurPas and sEVCurAc) were fully characterized by physicochemical techniques, confirming that neither methodology affects the morphology or size of the nanoparticles (sEV: 113.3±5.1 nm, sEVCurPas: 127.0±4.5 nm and sEVCurAc: 98.5±3.6 nm). Through the active approach with saponin (sEVCurAc), a three-fold higher cargo was obtained (433.5 µg/mL) in comparison with the passive approach (129.1 µg/mL). These sEVCurAc were further evaluated in vitro by metabolic activity assay (MTT), confocal microscopy, and flow cytometry, showing a higher cytotoxic effect in the tumoral cells RAW264.7 and HepG2 than in primary hepatocytes, specially at high doses of sEVCurAc (4%, 15% and 30% of viability). In vivo evaluation in an experimental model of liver fibrosis confirmed sEVCurAc therapeutic effects, leading to a significant decrease of serum markers of liver damage (ALT) (557 U/L to 338 U/L with sEVCurAc therapy) and a tendency towards decreased liver fibrogenesis and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.biopha.2024.116381

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Albaladejo-García, V., Morán, L., Santos-Coquillat, A., González, M. I., Ye, H., Vázquez Ogando, E., Vaquero, J., Cubero, F. J., Desco, M., & Salinas, B.
Affiliations
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
  • Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (ES)
  • Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (ES)
  • Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ES)
Corresponding author
  • Desco, Manuel
  • Salinas, Beatriz
Venue
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2024-04
Volume
173
Pages
116381
ISSN
0753-3322 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4392543522
Cited by
32
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 2
FWCI
4.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CD19/00136)
  • Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI20/01632)
  • European Social Fund Plus (PEJD-2018-POST/BMD-9592, PEJD-2018-PRE/BMD-9405)
  • Comunidad de Madrid (S2022/BMD-7403 RENIM-CM, EXOHEP2-CM, S2022/BMD-7409)
  • Horizon 2020 (101095679, HORIZON-HLTH-2022-STAYHLTH-02)
  • Consejería de Educación e Investigación
  • European Regional Development Fund
  • Gobierno de España Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PID2020-117941RB-I00)
  • Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (CRUE-Madro\u00F1o 2024)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Extracellular vesicles in disease
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Curcumin's Biomedical Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
Keywords
curcumin, small extracellular vesicles, drug encapsulation, chronic liver disease, liver fibrosis, nanotherapeutics, hepatoprotection, extracellular matrix deposition, RAW 264.7 macrophages, HepG2 cells
MeSH terms
Extracellular Vesicles, Animals, Curcumin, Humans, Liver Cirrhosis, Milk, Saponins

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review